I am delighted to announce that after more than three decades of creating hundreds of workshops and retreats for women in Canada and internationally, I will be introducing an intensive One Year Teacher Training Program for women who want to develop their own workshops. This unique training program will bring together expressive writing, Jungian themes, music and movement explorations, collage, and other modes of creative expression. During the twelve months of the program, I will offer you the best of what I have learned during more than thirty years of facilitating women’s workshops, retreats, and seminars in North America and Europe, and on Zoom.

We will cover all dimensions of workshop facilitation including practical and logistical aspects, recognizing good ideas and expanding them into rich and multi-faceted workshops, creating content and choosing materials, determining the form and structure of workshops, ensuring a sense of trust and safety in groups, designing a beautiful website and brochures that capture the spirit of your workshops, deciding on registration rates, getting the word out, creating a mailing list, dealing with challenging participants, teaching online, using social media and more.

In essence, this training program will cover the nuts and bolts of envisioning, designing, and facilitating inspiring workshops and soulful spaces that nurture women’s creativity.

This is the training program I would love to have taken when I began offering workshops: intensive, immersive, experiential, intimate, and integrative.

I look forward to sharing everything I have learned – the lessons, insights, and hard-won wisdom I have acquired throughout the years, along with a wealth of practical materials such as sample brochures, workshop outlines, writing prompts, guided visualizations, a collection of poetry and music gathered through the decades, and a wide variety of tried and true writing exercises and experiential processes. I will help you develop your own ideas and creative passions into exciting workshops and gatherings that nourish other women’s souls and feed their imaginations. If you dream of teaching workshops for women, please consider enrolling in this one-of-a-kind teacher training program.

The group will be limited to 12 participants to allow for ample attention to each individual.

• Both women who already have some experience facilitating workshops and those who have no previous teaching experience at all.

• Teachers, counselors, therapists, analysts, spiritual directors, coaches and other professionals who would like to deepen their own, and their clients’ use of expressive writing on the journey of self-exploration

• Women who long to give writing greater importance in their own lives and share their creative passion and experience with others

• Women who have been longing to offer workshops for women but don’t know where to start or how to begin

• Women who want to understand the nuts and bolts of offering workshops for women from the inside out

• Women who want to offer creativity workshops with a substantial writing component or to expand the role of writing in workshops they are already teaching 

• Women prepared to make a twelve month commitment to their own creative process as they prepare to launch their own workshops

• Women who want to generate income by offering workshops on topics they feel passionate about

• Women who are weary of striving onward and upward in the outer world and are ready to surrender inward and downward into their own creative depths

• Women who want to deepen their level of self-awareness as they begin offering their own workshops

• Women who love to bring others together in meaningful ways and create community together

• Women who feel that writing, dancing, and singing their way through life are joyful alternatives to trudging from one task to the next one

• Women who are fascinated by other people’s stories and the wondrous quirks and foibles of human nature

• Women who have a lively imagination, earthy common sense, and a solid grounding in the real world

• Women who want to explore passion, creativity, and the dance of the feminine

• Recognize a good workshop idea and develop it into a rich and multi-faceted workshop or retreat

• Create compelling workshop content, and curriculum

• Include your personal passions in your workshop content to expand your range of offerings

• Structure and pace your workshops

• Decide on workshop dates, times and locations

• Create a beautiful website that reflects who you are and what you offer, and conveys the tone of your workshop

• Get the word out and attract potential participants

• Determine workshop fees and registration details

• Inspire other women to enter their own depths and explore their own creative ideas and impulses

• Step into your role as workshop leader in a confident, authentic, and grounded way

• Decide how much of yourself to disclose in the workshop setting

• Create a gentle and respectful atmosphere in which women feel safe to express their thoughts and feelings in the group

• Witness, mirror, and contain each woman in the group

• Design and offer a six week workshop series on a topic of your choice

• Introduce basic Jungian concepts and themes into your teaching

• Work with typology – your own and that of your participants

• Bring your own dreams into workshop preparation and encourage your participants to explore their dream images and stories

• Support participants who are dealing with loss, grief, and trauma

• Deal with difficult participants and situations

• Generate fresh workshop content and materials for returning participants

• Keep learning and checking in with yourself while you are teaching

• Help your students discover their own writing strengths and passions

• Keep a process journal of ideas, inspirations, and quotes

• Nurture yourself so that your own creative well does not run dry 

• Extensive practical instruction in designing, creating, and offering workshops and retreats for women

• Exercises and experiential processes to enhance and deepen your own inner journey

• Monthly guest instructors who share their own specific areas of expertise and teaching tips

• Sample workshop outlines and content for some of my most popular programs

• A wealth of fully developed workshop materials and curricula

• A wide variety of writing and other experiential exercises for you and your participants

• A rich assortment of stimulating readings that will inspire your workshop content

• A large folder with hundreds of beautiful poems collected through the years and accompanying exercises

• Recordings of monthly sessions available for the duration of the program

• Regular learning and sharing in a community of kindred soulful women

• Weekly emails with creative prompts and additional resources

• Practice teaching sessions and receiving feedback in the group

• Experiential exercises in deep listening

• Detailed guidance on gathering materials and creating workshop content

• A copy of my book-in-progress, The Hand-Crafted Workshop: A Guide and Companion to Creating Soulful Spaces for Women

And this is just the tip of the iceberg …

In April I was interviewed by Lynda Monk, Director of the International Association for Journal Writing, on creating soulful workshops for women. Here is an excerpt from our discussion, courtesy of Lynda and the IAJW. (IAJW.org)

This is an intensive one year training program. It includes approximately 150 group contact hours and quarterly individual consultation hours over the course of twelve months.

The program will require a serious commitment of time, energy and resources. Please use thoughtful discernment in deciding to join the group. 

Program sessions will take place on Sundays (except for four weekend retreats) and meeting times will accommodate international participants. The twelve-month program structure includes:

• Monthly four-hour training sessions

• Monthly two hour experiential sessions with guest instructors

• Monthly virtual writing cafés

• Monthly practice teaching sessions

• Individual consultations focusing on participants’ personal process and workshops 

• Meeting in pairs between monthly sessions 

• Regular email contact between sessions

• An online discussion forum and place to meet between sessions

We will meet on the Zoom platform. Program materials will be sent to participants via an online platform (TBD) along with Word and PDF files. 

If conditions allow, we may also meet for an in-person retreat during the course of the program.

At the end of twelve months, participants will have the knowledge and skills required to offer their own body soul writing and related workshops for women. 

• Participation in at least two previous workshops, series, or retreats with Marlene. Please contact me if you are interested in this training program and do not meet this requirement. 

• A regular writing practice: this could be journal writing or morning pages, proprioceptive writing or other consistent writing habit.

• An additional form of soulwork: analysis, therapy, counseling, spiritual direction, or coaching; art, collage, movement, voice, music, or other expressive modality.

• A 30 minute telephone or Zoom conversation before your registration is confirmed.

• If you are a new participant, an hour consultation. The fee ($175) will be applied to the registration fee if you are accepted into the program and refunded, if not.

• A completed application and registration form, link below. 

• Regular attendance and participation in program sessions. This is a live training program and while sessions will be recorded for subsequent review, live participation is essential.

• Monthly reflective writing to integrate your inner process and learning.

• A final reflective essay of 10-15 pages.

• Written agreement to program requirements and conditions.

• Please read A Voice of Her Own: Women and the Journal Writing Journey, Gypsy Fugue: An Archetypal Memoir, and Marion Woodman’s The Pregnant Virgin: A Study in Psychological Transformation before the program begins. We will also read sections of Murray Stein’s Jung’s Map of the Soul.

Before July 1, 2022:

$675 CAD monthly in Canada, for twelve months
Or one payment of $7600 (save $500) by e-transfer or personal cheque
$675 USD monthly outside Canada, for twelve months
Or one payment of $7600 (save $500) by Paypal or bank transfer

After July 1, 2022: 

$725 CAD monthly in Canada, for twelve months
Or one payment of $8200 (save $500) e-transfer or personal cheque
$725 USD monthly outside Canada, for twelve months
Or one payment of $8200 (save $500) Paypal or bank transfer